Climate Change: Millions Homeless
Communities Displaced by Ecological Disasters
Effects of global warming and climate change causing millions to migrate, leaving victims of ecological disasters with no real rights or legal protection.
A New Kind of Refugee
You may have heard of Tuvalu, a beautiful Island State located halfway between Australia and Hawaii. Inhabited by a Polynesian people for 3000 years, it is made up of 4 coral reefs and 5 true atolls.
However, Tuvalu residents now face a modern ecological problem, directly linked to global warming. Residents are quickly joining the ranks of countless other environmental refugees. New Zealand has already accepted some the low-lying Pacific island state's citizens as rising sea levels swamp the country; others are migrating to Australia, or the neighbouring islands of Samoa or Fiji.
Many Countries Affected
Along with Tuvalu, many other countries are affected by the realities of climate change:
- Sana'a, Yemen's capital
- China's Gobi desert
- Morocco
- Tunisia
- Lybia
- Egypt
- Turkey
- Kiribati
- the Maldives
- the US state of Lousiana, to name just a few.
In 2005, half of Bhola Island in Bangladesh became permanently flooded, leaving 500,000 people homeless. They are described as being some of the first climate refugees, or 'ecologically displaced persons.' Hundreds of the former island residents were said to have moved into the Bangladesh slums, fleeing their homes in flooded coastal areas. Others among the first climate refugees include residents of Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea, where sea levels are constantly rising.
Scholars such as Andrew Simms, director of the New Economics Foundation in the United Kingdom and co-authour of a book titled "Environmental Refugees : The Case for Recognition, predicts as many as 50 million environmental refugees by 2010. Causes include rising sea levels, desertification, dried up aquifers, weather-induced flooding, deforestation, the over-exploitation of natural resources and other serious environmental changes. The problems linked to global warming and climate change are becoming undeniable; millions of people's homes, and incidentally their lives, are being destroyed by ecological disasters.
Industrial Responsibility
Corporate and industrial leaders are being accused of environmental persecution, a term employed by Mr. Simms and his colleague Molly Conisbee. Climate change is said to be driven by our fossil-fuel driven lifestyle. In an interview with Steve Curwood, host of an independent media program called Living on Earth, Mr. Simms affirms that when it comes to per capita emission figures, industrialized countries are at the top; in the United Kingdom, the Unites States, and most other European countries, the huge inequities in terms of fossil fuel use are a matter of fact.
Victims Left to Sink or Swim
Environmental activist groups like EarthShare and Orion Grassroots Network, and authorities on biodiversity like Dr.Norman Myers of the National Academy of Sciences, agree that support systems need to be implemented to provide legal aid and protection for the victims of ecological displacement they ought to be given refugee status under international law, as is available to victims of political upheavals or violence, whom have access to shelter, food, tools, financial grants, schools, and clinics.
But according to a press-release delivered by the UNU-EHS (United Nations University-Environment and Human Security) at the UN Day for Disaster Reduction, environmental refugees do not have access to these services, simply because they are not yet recognized in world conventions, and that more people are now displaced by environmental disasters than by war.
This should be a clear indication that international leaders need to catch up and that this new kind of refugee needs to find a place within international agreements. The phenomenon is spreading internationally at an alarming pace, and the numbers are growing exponentially. In fact, the only thing that doesn't seem to be accelerating is the global response rate. As the world changes, so should its political infrastructures.
